Refrigerating apparatuses, used as display cabinets, in stores and shops, are well known wherein a single compartment is maintained at a certain temperature by a refrigerating circuit comprising a single compressor and at least one evaporator. These apparatuses are equipped with a door which can be either vertical, in the case of a ‘cupboard like’ cabinets, or horizontal, in the case of a ‘flat-top’, cabinet such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,243. In any case the door is transparent to allow for potential customers to see what is inside the display cabinet.
More and more products are now displayed in such cabinets while they may have different storage temperature.
There is therefore a need for refrigerating apparatus of the display cabinet type which can be used for simultaneously storing products at different temperatures.
Refrigeration apparatuses are well-known in the art which comprise a refrigerating circuit provided with a single compressor and two evaporators arranged in series and associated to a refrigerated compartment and a freezer compartment, respectively. Automatic control means enable the refrigerated compartment temperature to be set and the compressor to be caused to operate cyclically in order to keep respective pre-determined temperature ranges in the two compartments.
A temperature balancing device can be adapted in the cold storage compartment to artificially heat up the cold storage compartment when the ambient temperature is excessively low, in such a manner as to increase the rate of the operation cycles of the compressor, thereby preventing the temperature in the freezer compartment from increasing.
Such devices require the use of two evaporators, one in each compartment.
There is thus a need for refrigerating apparatuses of the display cabinet type presenting two compartments at two different temperatures, while requiring only evaporator means in one compartment.
It therefore is a purpose of the present invention to minimise the drawbacks of such prior-art solutions.